Cellular device manufacturers must test device prototypes, including the housing and other components and particularly the printed circuit board (PCB), before releasing the device for production. A device whose prototype has been tested and approved may be manufactured and sold commercially as long as it remains essentially identical to the prototype.
In addition, access to the device PCB during manufacture is also often required. For example, there may be a need, during manufacture of a device, to program certain integrated circuits on the device PCB, so a port or connector must exist on the PCB for this function.
On modern cellular device designs, these testing and programming needs are met by configuring the PCB to provide, on its back surface, a dedicated connector that can be used for both programming and testing. With respect to units meant as test units, an access hole is machined into the back of the device's housing, such that access to the test connector from outside the device is possible even with a fully assembled device. These test connectors and access holes are then also used by third party testing facilities to validate that devices meet government or carrier regulations. The access holes are eliminated on final production units, but the dual purpose test connector itself must remain for RF programming to occur during the production process.
The problem with this existing design approach lies with the fact that the access to the dual purpose test connector is through the back of the device. That is, since access through the front of the device is not practical due to the display or touchscreen of the device, the access hole must be on the back of the device.
This causes a problem for compact product designs wherein the PCB lies directly against the inside surface of the rear of the housing. In such a configuration, there is no remaining space within the device for a traditional test connector to reside on the back side of the main PCB. As such, a different approach to enabling the testing and programming of a mobile device PCB is considered by the inventors to be beneficial.
While the present disclosure is directed to a system that can eliminate some of the shortcomings noted in this Background section, it should be appreciated that any such benefit is not a limitation on the scope of the disclosed principles, nor of the attached claims, except to the extent expressly noted in the claims. Additionally, the discussion of technology in this Background section is reflective of the inventors' own observations, considerations, and thoughts, and is in no way intended to accurately catalog or comprehensively summarize the prior art. As such, the inventors expressly disclaim this section as admitted or assumed prior art with respect to the discussed details. Moreover, the identification herein of a desirable course of action reflects the inventors' own observations and ideas, and should not be assumed to indicate an art-recognized desirability.